Iraqi minister wants coalition forces out of Baghdad in six months

A MINISTER in Iraq’s interim government said yesterday he wanted to see US and British soldiers pull out of Baghdad and other major cities within six months.

Iraq’s new electricity minister Ayham al-Samarrai told the BBC that coalition forces should shrink away into the countryside by the beginning of next year and let the Iraqi army take over in urban areas. “I am looking to see everybody going out of the cities in a very short time,” said Samarrai in a television interview. “I am talking about the British and the American soldiers to go out of the cities in six months time and stay outside in certain places to protect the country, because the country has no soldiers.”

Referring to the Iraqi army, he said: “I think we are already in the process of putting that army together.”

An additional 120 British infantry arrived in Iraq from their rear base in Cyprus on Saturday, taking the number of British forces deployed to 10,620, as the US-led coalition moves to beef up its military personnel.

The decision to send the troops, from the Second Light Infantry, could mark the start of an even greater reinforcement of Britain’s military force, based mainly in southern Iraq.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has ordered a review of the troop levels required to support British operations in the country, amid persistent attacks against US and British occupation forces. Hoon could today announce the deployment of several thousand more soldiers to Iraq, according to press reports.The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was pressing for 5,000 extra British troops to avert “strategic failure” of the coalition’s efforts to keep peace. The 130,000 US troops in Iraq have come under criticism for failing to stabilise the country since their ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April.